Unrest in China
Things are not going very well in China, in fact they are going rather poorly with protests occuring in over 300 cities according to this article in FrontPage Magazine. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is well aware that these circumstances led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Responding to the rise in civil unrest, Vice President Zeng Qinghong wrote, “One important reason the Soviet Union broke up was that in their long time in power, their system of governing became rigid, their ability to govern declined, people were dissatisfied with what officials accomplished and the officials became seriously isolated from the masses.”
To avoid isolation from the masses and a Soviet-styled collapse, the Beijing government has adopted a three pronged, preventive approach to curb civil unrest that includes; greater government control of technology and the flow of information, the restriction or outright elimination of mass assembly and free speech rights and the targeted persecution of organizations designed to expose state-sponsored abuse, false imprisonment and torture.
It seems to me that they are determined to correct the problem by doing more of what is creating the problem. It seems that a major source of this problem is the internet; so what are our friends in the CCP doing about that?
But Beijing’s most formidable adversary in their ongoing fight against civil unrest is the explosive growth of the Internet. With the number of Internet users in China estimated to exceed 100 million in 2005, access to the web is spreading throughout large metropolitan areas and into ancient farming communities where young families are learning the benefits of “going online.”
To combat this unwanted phenomenon, Beijing has recruited an army of 30,000 Internet secret police to monitor bloggers and bulletin board operators with the stated goal to “be proactive in developing discussion, increase control and use the Internet debate to our [CCP’s ] advantage.”
Isn't it amazing that they fear their own people so much. Now a good government is afraid to upset its constituents but these people are only afraid of what the people of China actually think and want.
I do not think the Chinese system can last. They abandoned socialism over a decade ago, sensibly recognizing that it doesn't work, but replaced it with economic facism (ie the investor owns the company but the state operates and controls it, which by the way is the original definition of facism as described by Mussolini.). They have an impossible situation in pensions coming up in just a couple decades plus they have a rich poor divide much worse than ours. Their days may be numbered, but desperation will make them even more dangerous.
Responding to the rise in civil unrest, Vice President Zeng Qinghong wrote, “One important reason the Soviet Union broke up was that in their long time in power, their system of governing became rigid, their ability to govern declined, people were dissatisfied with what officials accomplished and the officials became seriously isolated from the masses.”
To avoid isolation from the masses and a Soviet-styled collapse, the Beijing government has adopted a three pronged, preventive approach to curb civil unrest that includes; greater government control of technology and the flow of information, the restriction or outright elimination of mass assembly and free speech rights and the targeted persecution of organizations designed to expose state-sponsored abuse, false imprisonment and torture.
It seems to me that they are determined to correct the problem by doing more of what is creating the problem. It seems that a major source of this problem is the internet; so what are our friends in the CCP doing about that?
But Beijing’s most formidable adversary in their ongoing fight against civil unrest is the explosive growth of the Internet. With the number of Internet users in China estimated to exceed 100 million in 2005, access to the web is spreading throughout large metropolitan areas and into ancient farming communities where young families are learning the benefits of “going online.”
To combat this unwanted phenomenon, Beijing has recruited an army of 30,000 Internet secret police to monitor bloggers and bulletin board operators with the stated goal to “be proactive in developing discussion, increase control and use the Internet debate to our [CCP’s ] advantage.”
Isn't it amazing that they fear their own people so much. Now a good government is afraid to upset its constituents but these people are only afraid of what the people of China actually think and want.
I do not think the Chinese system can last. They abandoned socialism over a decade ago, sensibly recognizing that it doesn't work, but replaced it with economic facism (ie the investor owns the company but the state operates and controls it, which by the way is the original definition of facism as described by Mussolini.). They have an impossible situation in pensions coming up in just a couple decades plus they have a rich poor divide much worse than ours. Their days may be numbered, but desperation will make them even more dangerous.
posted by shoprat at 3:13 PM
1 Comments:
Just based on numbers it is only a matter of time before China implodes. Once a hundred million or so start talking loud enough the government will either hear them, or be over run by them.
The speed at which some of the folks are working around online roadblocks makes one think the collapse will be sooner rather than later.
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